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Built With The Blood Of Innocents

I saw it land but it was too late. My hand was already in motion and it was just another innocent buried in the paint that now makes the milking parlor so nice and clean looking. It seems like hundreds of innocent flies landed on the wet paint and were painted over or stuck there to die. There was really nothing I could do to stop it. But in reality I didn’t really want to.

Katrina and I spent most of 4 days priming, painting, and finishing up making the milking parlor that is now separate from the dairy room. The space had spent the last 20 years as a tack and tool room. But as I was making more cheese I wanted to keep the dust from the grain and goats out of the dairy area. So the logical place to go was next door. Moving all the tools and equipment was a job in itself. I had to find new homes for all of it. I spread it out among the different sheds…..the axes and mauls in the woodshed, the fencing pieces and tools in the generator shed, and the main tools I hung on the wall inside the main part of the barn. I also hung the little drawer boxes there, and I love it. Things are right where I can get to them even easier than in the tack room. There is also a lot of things that are now shoved in the loft waiting to be sorted and put someplace. That has to wait for another time. We moved the refrigerator out of the tack room into the dairy room and now for some reason it is not working. That has parts coming. I changed the orientation of the doors and when it is fixed, I will love the ease in putting my milk away. I won’t have to go around in circles…….a much nicer traffic pattern.

I found a salvaged cabinet in the loft that I brought down to put in the dairy room. That must have been there for 15 years waiting for its time to go back to work. It is a perfect size with a full sized breadboard for extra counter-top if I should need it. I took a wood shaver after it to make it so the drawers and breadboard would slide, cleaned it up and it is now a prized part of my work space. Next came moving the current milking stand into the new space and redesigning it to fit. I lost a place for a third goat, but as I milk alone anyway, I can’t get to a third before the others are done so that is not a big issue. I also had to figure out how to work around propane tanks and putting in a 55 gallon barrel that I use to mix the grain that I feed my girls. I spent almost a whole day just cleaning the cobwebs, dust, and other such stuff off the walls and ceiling. Then we started priming. Since this is older wood that had never been painted, it took several coats of primer……especially where there were water stains and grease marks. We decided not to paint the ceiling which is a good thing. That would have taken forever. My 5 year old granddaughter was there and painting for all those days. I could not believe that she would hold out that long, but after the 4th day she was saying that she wanted to paint forever. Well I can’t do that. My hands are done with holding a brush for a while.

I cut out the door that now connects the dairy room and the milking parlor and painted that…..on both sides. And when I put the spring on the door, I felt done. I moved all animal type things into the milking parlor and we are ready for our first baby goats of spring……due today.

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About Janolyn

I am a mother of 5 wonderful children, 4 boys and 1 girl. During the years that my children were growing up, we grew most of our own food with a vegetable garden, many fruit trees and berry patches. I grew flowers for joy. We milked goats and raised our own meats and eggs. I learned to make my own cheeses, butter, canned foods, sourdough, and fermented foods. I made our own health products like soap, hand creams, lip balm, and herbal tinctures. We live off the power grid and have learned to do without conveniences that most Americans consider essential. The land clearing and building has been mostly accomplished with hand tools; some of them even the right tool for the job.
After a couple of miscarriages between #2 and #3 due to “standard medical procedures”, I consulted a midwife and my last 3 children were born safely at home. That was when I was first alerted to the fact that doctors did not know everything nor would they have the time to share it with their patients if they did. As I learned the basic principles of heath-through-nutrition from my midwife, I learned alternative gardening practices from her husband. That introduction started a lifelong love of learning the practical life of our ancestors. I want to share what I have been learning with you and learn from those who are also living a sustainable life.

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